Welcome to my dinner party of finding peace with the memories you have created, the relationships you loved, and the realization of a new chapter. Sometimes learning to file them into a memory box, when you have outgrown them or need to let go can be the hardest celebration. I will forever put the memories I have created with very dear friends into a keepsake box next to my heart. For each friendship has taught me something that I needed to see or learn. For that I am grateful for each soul who has been part of my life. There is, and only always will be, love.

A dinner party to celebrate the love
and memories to say good-bye

When we were little we were taught to play nice with everyone on the playground. If you were a 90’s baby you were taught to welcome everyone to the magic carpet in the classroom and to share your favorite toy with the class. When you had a birthday, you invited the whole 2nd grade class to your Chuck E. Cheese themed party, and always gave a thank you card.

But as you grow up you slowly fade into classified groups, sports, and clicks. In college you find your way through old friendships into sharing life with roommates. You throw big bar birthday parties and Halloween bashes. No thank you cards, no timeouts for connection. When you hit your 20’s you tend to hang out with the happy hour work crowd and once a month meet-ups with those lingering college buddies. You often find work turnovers and moving from one work friend to the newbie. By your 30’s your hanging with the neighborhood mom friends and those from Barre class. Forgetting to follow up with phone calls, the check-ins, and dinner parties with those last few forever friends.

The point is life evolves, you evolve. Friendships slip through the cracks and new ones show up on your front lawn. Reality is, it’s okay. Each kid who shared their fries and milkshakes at lunch, each friend who slept on your living room floor, every happy hour shot and work rant with your co-worker, and every new friendship from here on was a memory… a keepsake.

So today I am saying pull up a seat to my dinner party. There was no invite. There will be no thank you card or party gift. There will only be the celebration of the ghosted memories of each lost friendship, each face that left the gift of a lesson in connection.

So thank you for each one of you who have been a part of my journey from little to now.

XO –
Jennica

Photo by: Gaby Scheer